Gainesville residents dropped off their unused or expired prescription drugs at HCA Florida Gainesville Emergency on Saturday as part of efforts from medical communities to ensure drugs are safely disposed of.
This is the seventh annual “Crush the Crisis” Prescription Drug Take Back Day held at HCA Florida Gainesville Emergency, which is one of 140 collection sites across the country. The take-back day is a national initiative by HCA Healthcare.
These events are held to promote awareness of the disposal of unused or prescription medications like opioids. Leaving unused or prescription medications at home may allow other people to misuse them and flushing them down the toilet can be harmful for the environment, said Crystal Plasencia, the pharmacy operations manager at HCA Florida North Florida Hospital.
"There's been testing done of the water and the soil supply that found there's antibiotics in our water and higher than normal amounts of hormones. That's probably a result of people flushing things down the toilet or throwing things in the trash,” Plasencia said. “We want to make our environment healthier by bringing back these medications safely."
HCA Florida Gainesville Emergency collected about 82 pounds of prescription drugs by the end of the event Saturday, according to Lauren Elliott, HCA Florida North Florida Hospital’s spokesperson. HCA Florida Putnam Hospital, HCA Florida Lake City Hospital and HCA Florida Gainesville Emergency together collected 277 pounds of prescription medication.
People participating in the event turned in the medications at a table in front of the emergency room staffed by hospital representatives and Gainesville Police Department officers.
Participants were not required to complete any forms to preserve their anonymity.
GPD officers then placed the medications into collection bags to be taken to the property and evidence section at the police station. They plan to eventually send the collected medications to a Drug Enforcement Administration incineration facility to be disposed of.
“As you go through your life and go through the health care system, you gain a lot of these pills,” said Lauren Elliott, the spokesperson for HCA Florida North Florida Hospital. “[This event] gives people something to do with these medications that they really don't need anymore.”
Other ways residents can dispose of their medications is through safe drug deposit boxes at retailers, hospitals or pharmacies, said Gainesville police officer Brayden Stokes.
Rick Izaguirre, a 48-year-old Gainesville resident who donated medications at the emergency room, said he had tried to go to Walgreens and other places to throw away his prescription medications but was getting charged to dispose of them.
“It kind of was a drag that they would require the payment,” he said. “That's why I just set [the medications] aside at home in a safe place and bring them whenever the event happens.”
Eric Milch, a 72-year-old Gainesville resident who also dropped off medications, said the event was a perfect way to help him safely dispose of them.
“I don't want to see stuff going into the landfill that is going to make it worse than it already is,” he said.
More than four people dropped off their prescription medications. People who disposed of their prescriptions were offered a lunchbox that contained a pill box, a sticker and a flyer advertising the new HCA Florida Gainesville Hospital currently under construction.
Vape cartridges (without batteries), pet medications, patches and medicated ointments were also accepted at the drug take-back event. Needles, syringes, lancets and illegal drugs were not accepted, according to the HCA website.